Doubt cast on PM's nursery reforms

Assessments found 42% of five-year-olds struggle to write shopping lists or letters to Father Christmas, while a third failed to recognise simple words such as "dog" or "pen".

Results from the Department for Children, Schools and Families showed many were unable to write their first names from memory or say the letters of the alphabet.

Children in the poorest areas lagged far behind pupils in more affluent postcodes in key aspects of development, such as communication and social skills.

The results were based on teachers' observations of more than half a million children throughout England as they start their formal schooling aged five.

The Foundation Stage Profile, as the assessment is known, shows how children are developing the skills expected of five-year-olds after their reception year.

Shadow families minister Maria Miller said the Prime Minister's flagship Sure Start children's centres programme was not giving toddlers the education they need.

This was despite ministers spending £21 billion on early years education since 1997, with another £4 billion to be invested over the next four years.

She said: "Children from our most deprived communities still face a significant disadvantage which Sure Start has not yet been able to address.

"The Government needs to wake up to the mounting evidence that their flagship scheme is not doing enough to help the children that are most in need."